DOCSLIB.ORG

A Town Full of Dead Mexicans: the Salinas Valley

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A Town Full of Dead Mexicans: the Salinas Valley The Western History Association A Town Full of Dead Mexicans: The Salinas Valley Bracero Tragedy of 1963, the End of the Bracero Program, and the Evolution of California's Chicano Movement Author(s): Lori A. Flores Source: The Western Historical Quarterly, Vol. 44, No. 2 (Summer 2013), pp. 124-143 Published by: Western Historical Quarterly, Utah State University on behalf of The Western History Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/westhistquar.44.2.0124 Accessed: 05-09-2015 22:23 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/ info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Western Historical Quarterly, Utah State University and The Western History Association are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Western Historical Quarterly. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 129.49.5.35 on Sat, 05 Sep 2015 22:23:48 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Figure 1. Braceros enter a converted truck-bus after eating lunch on the edge of a Salinas Valley field, 1956, by Leonard Nadel, Leonard Nadel Collection, Bracero History Archive, Division of Work & Industry, National museum of American History, item 2434. Photo courtesy of Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. This content downloaded from 129.49.5.35 on Sat, 05 Sep 2015 22:23:48 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions A Town Full of Dead mexicans: The Salinas Valley Bracero Tragedy of 1963, the end of the Bracero Program, and the evolution of California’s Chicano movement Lori A. Flores In 1963 a horrific accident took the lives of almost three dozen Mexican guest workers, or braceros, in California’s Salinas Valley. This article examines the event’s effects on various communities in the United States, including policy makers, civil rights activists, and farmworkers, while considering questions of race and labor, tragedy and historical memory, and the evolution of Chicano politics in California. En 1963 un accidente terrible tomó las vidas de casi tres docenas de traba- jadores mexicanos, o braceros, en el Valle de Salinas en California. Este artí- culo examina los efectos de este evento en varias comunidades en los Estados Unidos, incluyendo los políticos, activistas de derechos civiles, y los campesinos. Además considera cuestiones de relaciones raciales y laborales, tragedia y memoria histórica, y la evolución del movimiento Chicano en California. They are viewed as commodities, as objects, as chattels . the average bracero- holder probably has less respect for his chattels than the average slave-holder had for his a hundred years ago. You rent a bracero for six weeks or six months, and if he gets damaged, you don’t care. You’ll never see him again. You get next year’s model—a newer, younger, healthier one. —Henry Anderson, Advisory Board of Citizens for Farm Labor1 Lori A. Flores, assistant professor of history at SuNY Stony Brook, wishes to thank the archivists and interviewees who enriched the content of this piece; the various readers, including Albert Camarillo, estelle Freedman, Stephen Pitti, William Deverell, David Torres-rouff, Beth Lew-Williams, Timothy Tomlinson, Kevin Kim, Julie Prieto, and Josh Howe, who improved its Western Historical Quarterly 44 (Summer 2013): 125–143. Copyright © 2013, Western History Association. This content downloaded from 129.49.5.35 on Sat, 05 Sep 2015 22:23:48 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 126 Summer 2013 Western Historical Quarterly in the early morning hours of 17 September 1963, the crew of male mexican guest workers (or braceros) who lived at the earl meyers Company labor camp in Salinas, California, boarded a bus to begin their work in two local vegetable fields. After a ten-hour workday harvesting celery and other crops, the men reboarded the vehicle near the town of Chualar, twelve miles south of Salinas. This “bus,” a flatbed produce truck with an affixed canopy and two long, wooden benches inside, was one of many converted vehicles growers used to transport braceros throughout California. (See figure 1.) The fifty-seven men crammed into the back, some sitting on the floor next to long harvesting knives or atop large food con- tainers. A chain tied on the outside of the back doors kept the workers locked in the compartment, and the crew could not communicate with their driver and foreman, thirty-four-year-old Francisco “Pancho” espinosa, or thirty-two-year-old co-foreman Arturo Galindo, sitting next to espinosa in the passenger seat checking timesheets.2 Between 4:20 and 4:25 p.m., espinosa approached an unmarked railroad cross- ing eight miles south of Salinas. Not seeing or hearing a train, he inched the front wheels over the tracks. He suddenly heard a whistle but still did not see anything. espinosa gunned the motor to get across, but it was too late. A seventy-one-car Southern Pacificr ailroad freight train, traveling at sixty-five miles an hour, smashed into the right side of the vehicle with enough force to shear it in half. The passenger compartment detached, sending bodies, pieces of wood, and work tools flying. Before the engineer could bring the train carrying sugar beets to a stop, fifty-six men lay scattered around the tracks, some thrown three hundred feet beyond the point of impact. Twenty-three died instantly. Tony Vásquez, a mexican American foreman whose crew was thinning broccoli in a nearby field, witnessed the collision in hor- ror and called authorities before rushing to the scene. “Bodies just flew all over the place,” he said. A truckload of soldiers from nearby Fort Ord saw the wreckage from the highway and stopped to offer aid. meanwhile, other drivers slowed their cars to observe the accident, delaying ambulances trying to reach the workers. Paramedics and monterey County Coroner Christopher Hill came upon a gruesome scene: “One body was hooked under the engine. Shoes, hats and cutting knives were all around. everywhere you could hear the injured moaning.” As daylight faded, fifteen ambu- lances and several local residents with vehicles removed the dead and transported the injured to multiple Salinas hospitals, where three men died on arrival and two more died in surgery. Ambulance driver Gene Hopkins recounted the stories his cowork- ers told him about the tragedy: “They said that when they brought one ambulance analysis; and graphic/map designer David Hackett. 1 Henry Anderson, “Blood on the Lettuce,” 18 September 1963, transcript of radio broad- cast, 2, folder 3, box 11, ernesto Galarza Papers, Department of Special Collections, Stanford university (hereafter Galarza Papers). 2 “Crash Kills 27: Train Smashes makeshift Bus,” Los Angeles Times, 18 September 1963. This content downloaded from 129.49.5.35 on Sat, 05 Sep 2015 22:23:48 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Lori A. Flores 127 back to the garage from transporting the victims, they opened the back doors and the blood flowed out like water.”3 The dead braceros, hailing from the mexican states of Jalisco, Guanajuato, Sonora, Zacatecas, Puebla, and michoacán, ranged in age from nineteen to fifty-nine. José Gómez martÍnez died on his twenty-seventh birthday. Out of three pairs of brothers who had been riding in the bus, Federico and Salvador Olmedo Gallegos perished while José meza Huerta and Salvador Orozco Contreras lost their brothers roberto and Luis.4 Only one person was unharmed in the collision: espinosa, the driver. Although in shock, he emerged from the bus with only minor cuts and bruises. After responding to two rounds of questioning by the California Highway Patrol (CHP) and the monterey County dis- trict attorney, espinosa was arrested and placed in the Salinas jail on charges of felony manslaughter. He, along with the bracero guest worker program at large, would become the central figures of blame in what the CHP deemed “the biggest single fatal vehicle accident in the history of California.” 5 Some scholars have recognized the Chualar accident as an important event within the history of the Bracero Program (1942–1964), yet analysis of the event has been limited to details of the accident and the program’s lack of enforcement mechanisms for ensur- ing braceros’ safety.6 This article provides a critical examination of the 1963 accident, the communities involved in and affected by the incident, and the role this event played in the death of the Bracero Program and the evolution of California’s Chicano move- ment. The Chualar tragedy reminded the nation of braceros’ exploitation and vulner- ability as guest workers in the united States. Likewise, the accident revealed the Salinas Valley—long praised as the “Salad Bowl of the World” for its agricultural production—as a dark nexus of farmworker mistreatment. Desperate to maintain their access to cheap mexican labor, Salinas growers and officials attempted to control public opinion of the accident by handling the bracero victims’ funeral, impeding federal investigations, and silencing the crash survivors. Yet they could not escape critiques from union leaders, religious representatives, and mexican American political activists who argued that Chualar was only symptomatic of the larger transnational tragedy that was the Bracero Program, which simultaneously exploited mexican laborers and displaced u.S. workers 3 “27 mexican Celery Workers Die as Train Hits Bus in California,” New York Times, 18 September 1963; “Crash Kills 27”; and Gene Hopkins, interview by author, 28 June 2009.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Winners Tab
    The Winners Tab 2013 BETTER NEWSPAPERS CONTEST AWARDS PRESENTATION: SATURDAY, MAY 3, 2014 CALIFORNIA NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION INSIDE ESTABLISHED 1888 2 General Excellence 5 Awards by Newspaper 6 Awards by Category 10 Campus Awards normally loquacious violinist is prone to becoming overwhelmed with emotion The Most Interesting Man in the Phil when discussing the physical, psychologi- How Vijay Gupta, a 26-Year-Old Former Med Student, cal and spiritual struggles of his non-Dis- Found Himself and Brought Classical Music to Skid Row ney Hall audience. “I’m this privileged musician,” he said recently. “Who the hell am I to think that I By Donna Evans could help anybody?” On a sweltering day in late August, raucous applause. Chasing Zubin Mehta Los Angeles Philharmonic violinist Vijay Screams of “Encore!” are heard. One Gupta will be front and center this week Gupta steps in front of a crowd and bows man, sitting amidst plastic bags of his when the Phil kicks off the celebration of his head to polite applause. belongings, belts out a curious request for the 10th anniversary of Walt Disney Con- He glances at the audience and surveys Ice Cube. Gupta and his fellow musicians, cert Hall. Along with the 105 other mem- the cellist and violist to his left . He takes Jacob Braun and Ben Ullery, smile widely bers of the orchestra, he’ll spend much of a breath, lift s his 2003 Krutz violin and and bow. the next nine months in formal clothes tucks it under his chin. Once it’s settled, Skid Row may seem an unlikely place and playing in front of affl uent crowds.
    [Show full text]
  • A History of Mexican Workers on the Oxnard Plain 1930-1980
    LABOR, MIGRATION, AND ACTIVISM: A HISTORY OF MEXICAN WORKERS ON THE OXNARD PLAIN 1930-1980 By Louie Herrera Moreno III A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Chicano/Latino Studies 2012 ABSTRACT LABOR, MIGRATION, AND ACTIVISM: A HISTORY OF MEXICAN WORKERS ON THE OXNARD PLAIN 1930-1980 By Louie Herrera Moreno III First and foremost, this dissertation focuses on the relationship between labor and migration in the development of the City of Oxnard and La Colonia neighborhood. Labor and migration on the Oxnard Plain have played an important part in shaping and constructing the Mexican working-class community and its relationship to the power structure of the city and the agri-business interests of Ventura County. This migration led to many conflicts between Mexicans and Whites. I focus on those conflicts and activism between 1930 and 1980. Secondly, this dissertation expands on early research conducted on Mexicans in Ventura County. The Oxnard Plain has been a key location of struggles for equality and justice. In those struggles, Mexican residents of Oxnard, the majority being working- class have played a key role in demanding better work conditions, housing, and wages. This dissertation continues the research of Tomas Almaguer, Frank P. Barajas, and Martha Menchaca, who focused on class, race, work, leisure, and conflict in Ventura County. Thirdly, this dissertation is connected to a broader history of Mexican workers in California. This dissertation is influenced by important research conducted by Carey McWilliams, Gilbert Gonzalez, Vicki Ruiz, and other historians on the relationship between labor, migration, and activism among the Mexican working-class community in Southern California.
    [Show full text]
  • Minority Percentages at Participating Newspapers
    Minority Percentages at Participating Newspapers Asian Native Asian Native Am. Black Hisp Am. Total Am. Black Hisp Am. Total ALABAMA The Anniston Star........................................................3.0 3.0 0.0 0.0 6.1 Free Lance, Hollister ...................................................0.0 0.0 12.5 0.0 12.5 The News-Courier, Athens...........................................0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Lake County Record-Bee, Lakeport...............................0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 The Birmingham News................................................0.7 16.7 0.7 0.0 18.1 The Lompoc Record..................................................20.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 20.0 The Decatur Daily........................................................0.0 8.6 0.0 0.0 8.6 Press-Telegram, Long Beach .......................................7.0 4.2 16.9 0.0 28.2 Dothan Eagle..............................................................0.0 4.3 0.0 0.0 4.3 Los Angeles Times......................................................8.5 3.4 6.4 0.2 18.6 Enterprise Ledger........................................................0.0 20.0 0.0 0.0 20.0 Madera Tribune...........................................................0.0 0.0 37.5 0.0 37.5 TimesDaily, Florence...................................................0.0 3.4 0.0 0.0 3.4 Appeal-Democrat, Marysville.......................................4.2 0.0 8.3 0.0 12.5 The Gadsden Times.....................................................0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Merced Sun-Star.........................................................5.0
    [Show full text]
  • The Formation of Subjectivity in Mexican American Life Narratives
    University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository American Studies ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2-9-2011 Ghostly I(s)/Eyes: The orF mation of Subjectivity in Mexican American Life Narratives Patricia Marie Perea Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/amst_etds Recommended Citation Perea, Patricia Marie. "Ghostly I(s)/Eyes: The orF mation of Subjectivity in Mexican American Life Narratives." (2011). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/amst_etds/34 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in American Studies ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. i ii © 2010, Patricia Marie Perea iii DEDICATION por mi familia The smell of cedar can break the feed yard. Some days I smell nothing until she opens her chest. Her polished nails click against tarnished metal Cleek! Then the creek of the hinge and the memories open, naked and total. There. A satin ribbon curled around a ringlet of baby fine hair. And there. A red and white tassel, its threads thick and tangled. Look here. She picks up a newspaper clipping, irons out the wrinkles between her hands. I kept this. We remember this. It is ours. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Until quite recently, I did not know how many years ago this dissertation began. It did not begin with my first day in the Ph.D. program at the University of New Mexico in 2000. Nor did it begin with my first day as a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin in 1997.
    [Show full text]
  • Hispanic-Americans and the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)
    Southern Methodist University SMU Scholar History Theses and Dissertations History Spring 2020 INTERNATIONALISM IN THE BARRIOS: HISPANIC-AMERICANS AND THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR (1936-1939) Carlos Nava [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.smu.edu/hum_sci_history_etds Recommended Citation Nava, Carlos, "INTERNATIONALISM IN THE BARRIOS: HISPANIC-AMERICANS AND THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR (1936-1939)" (2020). History Theses and Dissertations. 11. https://scholar.smu.edu/hum_sci_history_etds/11 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the History at SMU Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in History Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of SMU Scholar. For more information, please visit http://digitalrepository.smu.edu. INTERNATIONALISM IN THE BARRIOS: HISPANIC-AMERICANS AND THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR (1936-1939) Approved by: ______________________________________ Prof. Neil Foley Professor of History ___________________________________ Prof. John R. Chávez Professor of History ___________________________________ Prof. Crista J. DeLuzio Associate Professor of History INTERNATIONALISM IN THE BARRIOS: HISPANIC-AMERICANS AND THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR (1936-1939) A Thesis Presented to the Graduate Faculty of Dedman College Southern Methodist University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Master of Arts with a Major in History by Carlos Nava B.A. Southern Methodist University May 16, 2020 Nava, Carlos B.A., Southern Methodist University Internationalism in the Barrios: Hispanic-Americans in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) Advisor: Professor Neil Foley Master of Art Conferred May 16, 2020 Thesis Completed February 20, 2020 The ripples of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) had a far-reaching effect that touched Spanish speaking people outside of Spain.
    [Show full text]
  • AFSC and the Poor People's Campaign of 1968 Gordon Mantler
    Partners in Justice and Peace: AFSC and the Poor People’s Campaign of 1968 Gordon Mantler, Ph.D. University Writing Program The George Washington University (INTRO SLIDE) On December 4, 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. formally announced a much- anticipated program of mass civil disobedience that was aimed at forcing the federal government to rededicate itself to the War on Poverty. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, King stated, would launch a Poor People’s Campaign to dramatize poverty in the United States by leading “waves of the nation’s poor and disinherited to Washington, D.C. … to secure at least jobs or income for all.” During the following spring, “we will be petitioning our government for specific reforms and we intend to build militant nonviolent actions until that government moves against poverty.”i At the heart of the plan was King’s notion of “militant nonviolence,” illustrated through a series of planned marches, rallies, demonstrations, and sit-ins designed to tie up federal agencies and Congress – all emanating from a central, semi-permanent campout of poor people on the National Mall called Resurrection City.ii If such “massive dislocation” failed to move decision-makers in Washington, then demonstrators would take their protests home to cities and smaller communities across the country, as well as to the two major party political conventions that summer. One way or another, King promised, the poor would be acknowledged in the richest nation in the world. (PPC SLIDE) 1 King’s vision of an “army of the poor” was ambitious, to say the least, because it sought nothing less than the transformation of an already-evolving black freedom struggle into a genuine national movement of, by, and for poor people.
    [Show full text]
  • Table 6: Details of Race and Ethnicity in Newspaper
    Table 6 Details of race and ethnicity in newspaper circulation areas All daily newspapers, by state and city Source: Report to the Knight Foundation, June 2005, by Bill Dedman and Stephen K. Doig The full report is at http://www.asu.edu/cronkite/asne (The Diversity Index is the newsroom non-white percentage divided by the circulation area's non-white percentage.) (DNR = Did not report) State Newspaper Newsroom Staff non-Non-white Hispanic % Black % in Native Asian % in Other % in Multirace White % in Diversity white % % in in circulation American circulation circulation % in circulation Index circulation circulation area % in area area circulation area (100=parity) area area circulation area area Alabama The Alexander City Outlook N/A DNR 26.8 0.6 25.3 0.3 0.2 0.0 0.5 73.2 Alabama The Andalusia Star-News 175 25.0 14.3 0.8 12.3 0.5 0.2 0.0 0.6 85.7 Alabama The Anniston Star N/A DNR 20.7 1.4 17.6 0.3 0.5 0.1 0.8 79.3 Alabama The News-Courier, Athens 0 0.0 15.7 2.8 11.1 0.5 0.4 0.0 0.9 84.3 Alabama Birmingham Post-Herald 29 11.1 38.5 3.6 33.0 0.2 1.0 0.1 0.7 61.5 Alabama The Birmingham News 56 17.6 31.6 1.8 28.1 0.3 0.8 0.1 0.7 68.4 Alabama The Clanton Advertiser 174 25.0 14.4 2.9 10.4 0.3 0.2 0.0 0.6 85.6 Alabama The Cullman Times N/A DNR 4.5 2.1 0.9 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.9 95.5 Alabama The Decatur Daily 44 8.6 19.7 3.1 13.2 1.6 0.4 0.0 1.4 80.3 Alabama The Dothan Eagle 15 4.0 27.3 1.9 23.1 0.5 0.6 0.1 1.0 72.8 Alabama Enterprise Ledger 68 16.7 24.4 2.7 18.2 0.9 1.0 0.1 1.4 75.6 Alabama TimesDaily, Florence 89 12.1 13.7 2.1 10.2 0.3 0.3 0.0 0.7
    [Show full text]
  • Index to Authors
    LaborHistory, Vol. 43, No. 1/ 2,2002 BOOK REVIEWINDEX Aalders, Gerard andCees Wiebes. The Art Aiken, Michael,et al. Economic Failure, of Cloaking Ownership:The Secret Collab- Alienation, andExtremism. (Ross Stag- oration andProtection of theGerman War ner)10:2, 293– 295, Spring 1969. Industry bythe Neutrals— The Case of Aitken,Hugh G. J. Taylorism atWatertown Sweden. (JohnGillingham) 38:1, 148– Arsenal: Scientic Management in Action, 150,Winter 1996– 97. 1908–1915. (LaurenceB. Cohen)2:2, Abella, IrvingM. Nationalism, Communism 248–249, Spring 1961. andCanadian Labour: TheCIO, the Akin, William E. Technocracy andthe Communist Party andthe Canadian Con- American Dream: TheTechnocratic Move- gressof Labour, 1935–1956. (George S. ment, 1900–1941. (SamuelHaber) 20:3, Kealey)15:1, 130– 134, Winter 1974. 456–458, Summer 1979. Abella, Irvingand David Millar(eds.). The Alba, Victor. TheCommunist Party In CanadianWorker in theTwentieth Cen- Spain. (GeorgeEsenwein) 28:4, 578– tury. (DavidFrank) 21:4, 617– 619, Fall 583,Fall 1987. 1980. Alba, Victor. Politics andthe Labor Move- Abelove, Henry, BetsyBlackmar, Peter ment in Latin America. (SamuelL. Baily) Dimock,and Jonathan Scheer (eds.). 10:2,304– 306, Spring 1969. Visions of History. (JohnHaynes) 26:1, Aldrich, Mark. SafetyFirst: Technology, 146–147, Winter 1985. Labor andBusiness in theBuilding of Abendroth, Wolfgang. AShort History of American Work Safety,1870– 1939. (Carl theEuropean Working Class. (Peter N. Gersuny)39:2, 219– 221, May 1998. Stearns)14:2, 310– 311, Spring 1973. Alexander,John K. RenderThem Submiss- Abraham, David. TheCollapse of theWei- ive:Responses to Poverty in Philadelphia, mar Republic: Political Economy andCri- 1760–1800. (Sharon V.Salinger)26:1, sis.
    [Show full text]
  • November 7, 2014 Laura Lovrien Liberty Publishers Services Orbital
    November 7, 2014 Laura Lovrien Liberty Publishers Services Orbital Publishing Group P.O. Box 2489 White City, OR 97503 Re: Cease and Desist Distribution of Deceptive Subscription Notices Dear Ms. Lovrien: The undersigned represent the Newspaper Association of America (“NAA”), a nonprofit organization that represents daily newspapers and their multiplatform businesses in the United States and Canada. It has come to our attention that companies operating under various names have been sending subscription renewal notices and new subscription offers to both subscribers and non-subscribers of various NAA member newspapers. These notices falsely imply that they are sent on behalf of a member newspaper and falsely represent that the consumer is obtaining a favorable price. In reality, these notices are not authorized by our member newspapers, and often quote prices that far exceed the actual subscription price. We understand that the companies sending these deceptive subscription renewal notices operate under many different names, but that many of them are subsidiaries or affiliates of Liberty Publishers Services or Orbital Publishing Group, Inc. We have sent this letter to this address because it is cited on many of the deceptive notices. Liberty Publishers Services, Orbital Publishing Group, and their corporate parents, subsidiaries, and other affiliated entities, distributors, assigns, licensees and the respective shareholders, directors, officers, employees and agents of the foregoing, including but not limited to the entities listed in Attachment A (collectively, “Liberty Publishers Services” and/or “Orbital Publishing Group”), are not authorized by us or any of our member newspapers to send these notices. Our member newspapers do not and have not enlisted Liberty Publishers Services or Orbital Publishing Group for this purpose and Liberty Publishers Services and Orbital Publishing Group are not authorized to hold themselves out in any way as agents who can process payments from consumers to purchase subscriptions to our member newspapers.
    [Show full text]
  • Journal of San Diego History V 50, No 1&2
    T HE J OURNAL OF SANDIEGO HISTORy VOLUME 50 ■ WINTER/ SPRING 2004 ■ NUMBERS 1 & 2 IRIS H. W. ENGSTRAND MOLLY MCCLAIN Editors COLIN FISHER DAWN M. RIGGS Review Editors MATTHEW BOKOVOY Contributing Editor Published since 1955 by the SAN DIEGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY Post Office Box 81825, San Diego, California 92138 ISSN 0022-4383 T HE J OURNAL OF SAN DIEGO HISTORy VOLUME 50 ■ WINTER/SPRING 2004 ■ NUMBERS 1 & 2 Editorial Consultants Published quarterly by the MATTHEW BOKOVOY San Diego Historical Society at University of Oklahoma 1649 El Prado, Balboa Park, San Diego, California 92101 DONALD C. CUTTER Albuquerque, New Mexico A $50.00 annual membership in the San WILLIAM DEVERELL Diego Historical Society includes subscrip- University of Southern California; Director, Huntington-USC Institute on California tion to The Journal of San Diego History and and the West the SDHS Times. Back issues and microfilm copies are available. VICTOR GERACI University of California, Berkeley Articles and book reviews for publication PHOEBE KROPP consideration, as well as editorial correspon- University of Pennsylvania dence should be addressed to the ROGER W. LOTCHIN Editors, The Journal of San Diego History University of North Carolina Department of History, University of San at Chapel Hill Diego, 5998 Alcala Park, San Diego, CA NEIL MORGAN 92110 Journalist DOYCE B. NUNIS, JR. All article submittals should be typed and University of Southern California double spaced, and follow the Chicago Manual of Style. Authors should submit four JOHN PUTMAN San Diego State University copies of their manuscript, plus an electronic copy, in MS Word or in rich text format ANDREW ROLLE (RTF).
    [Show full text]
  • The Price of Labor: CONTEXTUALIZING and HUMANIZING the BRACEROS
    The Price of Labor: CONTEXTUALIZING AND HUMANIZING THE BRACEROS LESSONS brought to you by the untold history education project & teach immigration ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We would like to thank the following individuals and organizations for their permission to use materials for educational purposes and for their guidance on this project: • This project was generously sponsored by the American Immigration Council, a non-profit, non-partisan organization based in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visitwww.americanimmigrationcouncil.org • Stanford University Special Collections and University Archives and the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE), in particular Ignacio Ornelas Rodriguez and Dr. Gary Mukai, EdD • Western Historical Quarterly, in particular Dr. David Rich Lewis, PhD and Dr. Lori A. Flores, PhD COVER PHOTOS: Leonard Nadel Photographs and Scrapbooks, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution THE PRICE OF LABOR I 2 The Price of Labor: CONTEXTUALIZING AND HUMANIZING THE BRACEROS INTRODUCTION The Bracero program was a migrant labor program that grew out of a series of agreements between the U.S. and Mexican governments. It lasted 22 years from 1942 to 1964, and in that time, 4.6 million Mexicans signed contracts to work temporarily in the United States. It has been cited as the largest contract labor program in U.S. history. This mini- unit examines the socio-economic, environmental, political, and cultural aspects of the Bracero program. Initially prompted out of concerns for agricultural labor shortages during World War II, the program had long lasting consequences that extended beyond its official end in 1964. The program grew in concert and in context with its times.
    [Show full text]
  • December 4, 2017 the Hon. Wilbur L. Ross, Jr., Secretary United States Department of Commerce 1401 Constitution Avenue, NW Washi
    December 4, 2017 The Hon. Wilbur L. Ross, Jr., Secretary United States Department of Commerce 1401 Constitution Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. 20230 Re: Uncoated Groundwood Paper from Canada, Inv. Nos. C–122–862 and A-122-861 Dear Secretary Ross: On behalf of the thousands of employees working at the more than 1,100 newspapers that we publish in cities and towns across the United States, we urge you to heavily scrutinize the antidumping and countervailing duty petitions filed by North Pacific Paper Company (NORPAC) regarding uncoated groundwood paper from Canada, the paper used in newspaper production. We believe that these cases do not warrant the imposition of duties, which would have a very severe impact on our industry and many communities across the United States. NORPAC’s petitions are based on incorrect assessments of a changing market, and appear to be driven by the short-term investment strategies of the company’s hedge fund owners. The stated objectives of the petitions are flatly inconsistent with the views of the broader paper industry in the United States. The print newspaper industry has experienced an unprecedented decline for more than a decade as readers switch to digital media. Print subscriptions have declined more than 30 percent in the last ten years. Although newspapers have successfully increased digital readership, online advertising has proven to be much less lucrative than print advertising. As a result, newspapers have struggled to replace print revenue with online revenue, and print advertising continues to be the primary revenue source for local journalism. If Canadian imports of uncoated groundwood paper are subject to duties, prices in the whole newsprint market will be shocked and our supply chains will suffer.
    [Show full text]